"But who do you say that I am?"

🎯 Objectives

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

place Jesus’ question at Caesarea Philippi, and Peter’s answer, in their context;
recognize the main opinions about Jesus, past and present, and why they are not enough;
explain the meaning of the names “Jesus” and “Christ” and what Christology studies;
put into words your own answer to Jesus’ question.

📖 Receive

Read Matthew 16:13-20 slowly. Then pause on these two verses:

“He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” — Matthew 16:15-16 (KJV)

Read Jesus’ question again slowly, as if it were being asked of you for the first time. Because it is.

🔍 Examine

A question in a particular place

Jesus takes his disciples away from the crowds, to the far north of the country, to the area of Caesarea Philippi, at the foot of Mount Hermon, near the springs of the Jordan. It was a city rebuilt by Philip, son of Herod the Great, and dedicated to the emperor: its very name celebrated Caesar. Pagan gods were also worshipped in the area.

The contrast is striking. In a place that honours the “lords” of this world, Jesus asks his followers: who am I? The question comes in two stages.

First he asks: “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” (Matthew 16:13). It is an easy question: you only have to report opinions. The answers are respectful: John the Baptist back from the dead, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. All great names. But all wrong.

Then Jesus makes the question personal: “But whom say ye?” It is not enough to know what others think. Each person has to answer for themselves.

Today’s answers

Today, too, almost everyone has an opinion about Jesus, and it is often a positive one:

a great moral teacher, who taught love and forgiveness;
a prophet, one of the many sent by God throughout history;
an example, a courageous man who paid for his ideas with his life;
a myth, a figure created by the faith of his followers.

What do these answers have in common? They put Jesus in a category we already know. They make him great, but not unique. They admire him, but they don’t ask anyone to bow before him.

The problem is that Jesus himself doesn’t leave us that option. He forgave sins, he accepted worship, he said he was the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). A mere teacher who said these things would not be a good teacher. Either he is what he claims to be, or he is not trustworthy. The middle ways don’t hold up.

The reasoning can be summed up in a diagram. Jesus claims to be much more than a teacher: if the claim is true, he is the Lord; if it is false, either he knew it (and so he was deceiving people) or he didn’t know it (and so he was deluded). In neither case would he be a “good teacher”.

flowchart TD
  A["Jesus claims to be the Son of God"] --> B{"Is it true?"}
  B -- "Yes" --> C["He is the Lord: worship and follow him"]
  B -- "No" --> D{"Did he know it?"}
  D -- "Yes" --> E["He would be a deceiver"]
  D -- "No" --> F["He would be deluded"]

Note well: the diagram does not “prove” faith, but it removes a comfortable escape route. It forces us to take Jesus’ words seriously and to look in the Gospels for which of the three possibilities really stands the test of his life, his teaching and his resurrection.

Peter’s answer

Peter answers on behalf of them all: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In just a few words lies the heart of the Christian faith.

“Thou art the Christ”: you are the promised Messiah, the One the Scriptures were waiting for.
“the Son of the living God”: you have a unique relationship with God. You are not only a servant of God, like the prophets, but the Son.

And Jesus replies with a beatitude: Peter is blessed, because this truth was not revealed to him by “flesh and blood”, but by the Father in heaven (Matthew 16:17).

📌 Knowing Jesus is a gift

You can know a lot about Jesus without really knowing him. Information can be learned; recognizing him as the Son of God and Saviour is God’s work in the heart. That is why the study of the person of Christ begins with prayer: “Lord, show me who you are.”

What his names mean

We often say “Jesus Christ” as if it were a first name and a surname. In reality they are a name and a title.

Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Yeshua (a shortened form of Yehoshua, Joshua), which means “the LORD saves”. It is not a name chosen at random: the angel tells Joseph to call him this because he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). His name is already his mission.

Christ comes from the Greek Christós and translates the Hebrew Mashíach, Messiah. Both mean “anointed”. In the Old Testament kings, priests and, in some cases, prophets were anointed with oil: it was the sign that God was choosing them and equipping them for a task. To say that Jesus is the Christ is to say that he is the Anointed One par excellence, the ultimate King, Priest and Prophet. We will come back to this in lesson 8.

Name or title	Original language	Meaning	What it tells us
Jesus	Hebrew Yeshua	“the LORD saves”	his mission: to save
Christ	Greek Christós	“anointed”	his role: King, Priest, Prophet
Messiah	Hebrew Mashíach	“anointed”	Israel’s promise fulfilled
Son of God	—	a unique relationship with the Father	his identity

At the centre of all Scripture

Why devote a whole course to this question? Because Jesus is not one topic among many: he is the centre.

To the disciples on the road to Emmaus he explains, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27).
To the religious leaders he says that the Scriptures testify about him (John 5:39).
Paul presents him as the image of the invisible God, through whom and for whom everything was created (Colossians 1:15-20).

The study of the person and work of Christ is called Christology, from the Greek Christós and lógos (“word”, “study”). It is not a subject for a few specialists. What we think about Jesus shapes everything else: how we read the Bible, how we pray, how we live, what we hope for. An error about him soon becomes an error about everything.

An answer that becomes discipleship

The story doesn’t end with Peter’s confession. From that time forth, says Matthew, Jesus begins to explain to the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed and rise again on the third day (Matthew 16:21). Peter, who has just given the right answer, cannot accept this and rebukes him. Jesus corrects him firmly and then tells everyone: if anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24).

Here is the lesson: Jesus’ question is not settled with a correct formula. Peter knew who Jesus was, but he still had to learn what kind of Messiah he was: a Messiah who goes by way of the cross. Truly answering the question of Caesarea means setting out to follow him. This course will help you know him better, so that you can follow him better.

🔗 Connect

The question of Caesarea runs through the whole New Testament:

John 1:41: Andrew, as soon as he meets Jesus, runs to his brother Simon and tells him: “We have found the Messias.”
John 6:66-69: when many walk away, Peter says that only Jesus has the words of eternal life.
Mark 15:39: beneath the cross, a Roman centurion recognizes that this man was the Son of God.
John 20:28: Thomas, standing before the risen Lord, confesses: “My Lord and my God.”
John 20:31: the Gospel itself was written so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we may have life in his name.

It is the same method we learn in every BereaWay course: receive the text in its context, examine it carefully and connect it to the whole of Scripture. Here the connection is clear: every page leads us to Christ.

🙏 Apply

Take a few minutes, on your own or with your study group:

If someone asked you today, “Who is Jesus to you?”, what would you answer, in your own words and in two sentences?
Of today’s opinions (teacher, prophet, example, myth), which do you hear most often around you? What is it missing?
Do you remember the moment when Jesus became more to you than a figure from history? If it hasn’t happened yet, what is holding you back?
Ask the Father in prayer to reveal to you more and more who his Son is, as he did with Peter.

📚 Go Deeper

Read Mark 8:27-38, the parallel account: notice that immediately after Peter’s confession, Jesus speaks about the cross.
Read John 20:24-31 and see how John concludes his Gospel with the same purpose as this course.
Write your answer to Jesus’ question on a sheet of paper and keep it: you will read it again at the end of the course.

In the next lesson we will tackle a question many people ask: can we trust what the Gospels tell us about Jesus?